F1 News

Masi: No differentiation anymore for unsafe releases

Masi: "No differentiation" anymore for unsafe releases

14-08-2019 17:53

F1 race director Michael Masi has said that unsafe releases will be punished with a time penalty to the driver, whether or not the driver gains an advantage.

Ferrari were fined when they released Charles Leclerc into the path of Romain Grosjean's Haas in the German Grand Prix last month, causing some people to question whether it was the right decision from the stewards.

And now Masi has clarified what the ruling will be from now on, and said in Hungary: "We had quite a good discussion and it was agreed that from this [Hungarian GP] weekend effectively, forget about what has happened in the first part of the year and during the race, if there is a judged unsafe release then it will be a time penalty regardless of if there is or is not a sporting advantage.

"So there will be no differentiation. Teams were all quite happy to effectively start from this weekend onwards and all the teams and team principals were made aware of exactly the same thing."